City of Brass is a BioShock-inspired Arabian Nights-meets-Indiana Jones rogue-lite

From a host of ex-Irrational devs, due this year.

Uppercut Games' collective CV boasts work on third-person exploration game Submerged, Mech brawler Epoch and Irrational's original BioShock. The Australian indie outfit's latest game is most inspired by the latter, with a touch of permadeath, Arabian Nights and Indiana Jones—both thematically and aesthetically.

If that sounds hard to imagine, let me point you to this trailer:

As you can see there, ingenuity in attack and defence is key to surviving City of Brass' hostile procedurally-generated environments, which are laden with traps and bursting with foes. As such, replayability is central to its makeup and players are encouraged to test out their skills with whatever can be manipulated around them. As a thief, you'll loot whatever you can and, with the help of trading genies, will build up armour, upgrades and and magic-infused gear.

"Developing a game with multiple, interacting systems that players can freely combine feels like a return to our roots, drawing on our experiences working on BioShock and many of our other favorites," explains the game's lead designer Ed Orman. "Players must learn how to use the traps to kill their foes, and even turn enemies against each another. You’ll perish in the City of Brass—often, and quite horribly—but as your skills improve and you discover new ways to cheat death, you’ll return to fight another day."

City of Brass is without a concrete launch date for now, however is expected "this fall" on Steam. More info can be found via the game's site.